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Do you really know your customer?

Back before the digital age, and the “millennials” we lived in a fairly certain world where we could be reasonably sure we knew our customers.. generally speaking, they physically stood right in front of you when being served.

In those halcyon days, you could sell your goods or services with a reasonable degree of confidence that the transaction would result in a positive outcome. In-person confidence tricksters were by and large, quite a rarity.

Spin forward now to 2017 and we now find we need things such as “know your customer” to help businesses to avoid falling foul of what used to be obvious – identity.

So why is identity so important when set against the backdrop of cardholder-not-present card payments ? It might sound a very odd thing to say but think of the sort of information that’s required to take a payment and you’ll find that key criteria such as customer’s name and address that lead you to think you know your customer, aren’t verified when payments are taken or received.

So what’s missing ? well, the main thing is the word verified. Verification of Identity is hugely important but sadly, for many organisations this is seen as exactly the opposite because it is simply assumed that the 3 or 4 digit security code on a payment card is sufficient protection or verification. This stance is exactly where online banking and early-generation mobility was before the invention of multi-factor authentication and the widespread use of biometrics in identity. Remember those PIN codes and complex passwords that frankly, everyone wrote down in a book somewhere ? Looking back, I’m amazed anyone thought it a safe and secure access and verification strategy for their finances and transactions !

Apple have mostly led the adoption of biometric identity through widespread use of the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone. Using such a device is now second-nature to most users and extension of the facility to approve purchases is now relatively commonplace.

Moving on from this, one cannot help to be impressed with Microsoft’s “Hello” facility which requires no more user intervention than staring at their Surface – Pro or Camera enabled laptop. In fact “Hello” is now so good in real-world use that it makes Fingerprint scanning look positively stone-age.

Lastly comes voice biometrics. Again, as the trade off between useability, adoption curves and security becomes ever more balanced, voice-based transactions, normally as part of contact-centre driven engagements become eligible for high-confidence verification services.

So maybe the question shouldn’t be “Do you really know your customer ?” Maybe it should be “How have I verified it really IS my customer ?” Speak to one of our team of Industry experts today to find out more about TrustCall Identity – our complete end-to-end Identification and verification solution.